The Mark of Gold
by BlizzardNight
Summary: So it really was them. It was verified. The ones' bearing the mark of gold have returned. She gripped her own pendant tightly. What exactly was Bill playing at?
1. Pendant

It wasn't really much of a nice place, when you really thought about it. It was full of flies and mosquitoes. A small town with not much too it. Lots of lumber to go around. Fresh air was an abundance. There wasn't much more one could say about it.

Mabel easily found the beauty. Lots of hills and grass to roll around in, plus the area was cool enough to wear her sweaters! What a bonus! She had to say that Grunkle Stan was rather an oddity though. Like a ruff and tough teddy bear. She smiled to herself contently, definitely a teddy bear.

She turned her head to keep an eye on Dipper. Everything was still a-ok! He seemed to be angrily writing into his journal he had brought along with him. She didn't really question the woodpecker pecking down onto his head. Well with that resolved she rolled down the hill once again.

When they had come to their Grukle Stan in Gravity falls, their parents had inform him that Dipper had been prone to what they could closely describe as seizures as there seemed to be no other real word to describe what happened to him. Doctors' best diagnosed it as 'Complex partial seizures' with an automatism, which seemed to be talking. Often it seemed like nonsense at first, but Mabel realized it later had a cryptic meaning.

Their Grunkle Stan was best described as a conman. He ran a small tourist trap in Gravity falls called 'The Mystery Shack', which also doubles as his home. It was there that Mabel and Dipper found themselves working for the summer. They couldn't do much in the Shack, they mostly helped around with the cleaning or the cashier when Soos or Wendy were occupied with other tasks.

She turned her head when Grunkle Stan jumped out from behind the tree, scaring him with the mask he had been wearing. She laughed before running back up the hill and rolling down once again. Their summer routines were somewhat dull, she even had to say so, but it was the pleasantry of closeness that made up for it.

It was on one fateful day that it had all changed.

Mabel was once again in one of her boy-crazy-find-a-boyfriend-as-quickly-as-possible phases. The poor unsuspecting boy had received a paper that had no possibility for denial, unless you decided to throw away or rip up the paper. No one was sure how many attempts she had made, but Dipper was sure she was pushing the pursuit a bit too much.

Mabel retorted him, saying she had a good feeling going on for her this summer. It was as if her boyfriend senses were tingling. She wouldn't be too surprised if the man of her dreams walked through the door behind them at this very moment!

That was when Grunkle Stan walked through and Mabel became very, very grossed out. On the other hand Dipper was laughing at her and the situation. Ah yes, karma.

Grunkle Stan was holding a bunch of signs. He needed someone to go out into the woods to go hang them up, after a small game of 'not-it', Grunkle Stan resorted to picking someone at random, which just so happened to be Dipper.

He argued a bit, saying that when he went out into those woods he felt as if he was being watched. Grunkle Stan could only roll his eyes in exasperation, muttering 'this again'. Dipper gave a few reasons, one of the most memorable being 'My mosquito bites spell "Beware"' while Grunkle Stan replied with cold hard facts that it actually spell 'Bewarb'.

"If you're really that paranoid about going into the woods," he said as he threw Dipper the signs, "there's an old family legend about the pendant your wearing, supposedly watches over you or something like that..."

Dipper looked down to the golden pendant he was wearing. If this thing really gave him protection, where had they been this entire time?

* * *

 **A/N: posted on ao3 as well as our tumblr! feel free to send us ideas cult-au. tumblr .com**


	2. Book

He grumbled to himself as he wandered in the forest looking for spots to hang up the signs. The forest was rather ominous looking, some could say even sad. If it was than it was reflecting how he felt. Dipper was rather disappointed that yet again, no one believed in what he had to say.

He looked down to his pendant, wondering if they were even listening. Great now he thought some old trinket his parents had given him could somehow change his day. Man if only. Everything left a bitter taste in his mouth as he hung signs onto trees.

Why didn't he have the heart to throw the thing away? He placed his hand on the next tree, attempting to put a nail in it when a metallic sound hit his ears. A tree isn't...? He hit it again with his hammer. Okay yes this tree was definitively made out of metal.

A flash caught the back of his eyes, a man in a snowsuit placing a package within the ground.

Dipper grabbed his head and groaned. He better finish up what he was doing here and return back to the shack.

He brushed his hand on the tree, peeling of dust before finding the crack that would permit him to open up the hatch. Within seemed to be some old and broken device. Was it used for communications? He wasn't really sure. He looked around, making sure no one was there and fiddled with the switches, hoping that it could possibly trigger something. He heard the sound of a door opening and a goat screaming in fright. Okay something happened. He turned his head confused at the hole in the ground. Cobwebs and dust littered the interer design. Smack in the middle laid a large tome that had seemed to seen better days.

He wondered what exactly a book could be doing in the middle of the forest? He picked it, as well as dusted it off. A giant 3 laid smack int he middle of the red tome. He needed to investigate the right away.

Placing it down on the ground, he once again looked around hoping no one else was there and hurriedly investigated the contents of the book.

He couldn't say who the book belonged to, seeing as the name of the owner has either teared with time or been ripped out, on the next page laid a hand written note, at the top laid the date, June 18.

 _ _I can't believe it has been six years since I started studying the strange complex history of the Cryptics in the town of Gravity falls, Oregon.__

He suddenly turned the page over. Many things were held within the book, mysterious phenomenon and history alike it seemed. The handwriting was in black, but there seemed to have been added notes in red.

 _'_ _ _In gold we remember', we do not trust.__

He closed the book without much further thought. "'In gold we remember', we do not trust?" He muttered to himself as he closed the book.

A peppy 'Hello!' from behind made him jump out of his skin, he fumbled with the book, clutching it to his chest scared he would lose it.

It seemed Mabel had found him in the forest, she had probably gotten worried as to why he had taken so long. She noticed to book and decided to playful inquire about it wondering if it was just some 'Nerd thing', while Dipper hastily supplied that it was nothing. Mabel mocked his nervous reply while she herself retorted, asking if he really wasn't going to show her, considering they told each other everything.

Dipper noted that the goat was back again, attempting to chomp down on his book. With that he decided that they would go somewhere private to talk about this.

As they made their way back though, one thought buzzed through Dipper's mind.

 _'_ _ _In gold we remember'__ was somehow familiar _ _.__


	3. Guest

When returning to the shack Dipper and Mabel sat themselves within the living room, he was excitedly recounting the knowledge out loud for Mabel's amusement. She seemed to be quite enjoying herself as he babbled on about this strange book with an even stranger history.

As he finished recounting the tale of the journal, the doorbell rang.

"Who's that?" He questioned to himself. It was weird, no one really came to visit. He closed to book, attempting to hide it subtlety.

Mabel decided it was time for her to spill the beans. She rubbed her hands together happily than pushed over a can of beans when she spoke her thoughts. Ah, visual puns.

She joyfully boosted the fact that she was able to procure herself a date. In the half hour Dipper had been gone, Mabel had been able to procure herself a date.

Okay that sounded fake, but okay.

He had to admit Mabel did have high self-confidence, but really Mabel. Really.

He felt his legs go stiff. Oh no. No no. The doorbell rang twice. He felt his vision going dark. Now was definitively not a good time.

Mabel jumped off the chair excitedly, but noticed that Dipper was having trouble. She held him carefully, making sure that he wouldn't fall to the ground and injure himself.

"Grunkle Stan!" Lucky for her he happened to be walking in at the time.

"What you kids doing…" he stopped talking when he noticed Dipper, a very distant look on his face.

"Hey is everything alright?" He approached the two kids and took some weight off of Mabel. She shook her head. The doorbell rang three times. She gave a worried glance to the door and quickly turned it back to her brother. Dipper was more important at the moment.

"I'll stay here with him you go and tell who ever's at the door to come back later" he gestured his head to the door. Mabel reluctantly left.

"Watch for the normal man, coming from the grave, looking for someone for their own. Many hide within, jam is bad" the voice was soft and void, very out of characteristic for someone with a personality such as Dipper's.

Mabel easily heard what Dipper spoke from where she was at the door upon the unexpected visitor.

"Will you excuse me for a second?" She smiled nervously as she slowly closed the door.

She hastily returned to her brother's side. They had about 3 to 10 minutes to wait before he would even regain consciousness. After 6 minutes Dipper finally started to swing around. She sighed in relief. She remembered one time when they were younger that it had taken him 10 hours before he even fathomed to speak a single word.

He groaned. He blinked a few times. His muscles still felt slightly stiff.

Hovering above him were both Grunkle Stan and Mabel. "You gave us a scare there kid," he nudged Dipper lightly, trying to lighten the tense mood they had found themselves in. "Now I understand what your parents meant in that note…"

Dipper rubbed his head, it felt a bit sore, but he hoped it would pass in a few minutes. He looked around the room in an attempt to regain his bearings. Oh yeah, he had been talking to Mabel about the journal when the doorbell rang. He looked around the room nervously, where was the journal?

He noticed Mabel subtly pointing to behind the chair. He could see a small bit of the journal peeking out from behind it. He felt his nerves relax, okay so no one had taken it. That was good.

"I'm alright guys, really," he shakily brought himself to his feet, he took up a brave stance showing that yes, he was a-ok. Grunkle Stan gave him this look of 'sure you are', while Mabel only rolled her eyes. Dipper looked at them both with annoyance.

This entire exchange was interrupted when Mabel remember she had made her boyfriend wait at the door for a full 8 minutes. She made this small high pitched sound hoping that he would still find himself at the door when she went to open it. To her relief he was still there, waiting awkwardly.

When she returned she noted Dipper was now seated on the chair while Grunkle Stan rested his arm upon the back of it. She smiled excitedly as she crossed arms with her boyfriend.

"Hey family, say hello to my new boyfriend!" the boyfriend in question turned around, giving a deep 'sup'. He seemed surprisingly relaxed, and wearing a lot of layers for the summer weather. Mabel was no better though. Dipper and Grunkle Stan both looked to the boyfriend with a slightly confused expressions, unsure of how to reply, but still being polite enough to reply. Mabel explained that they had met at the cemetery and that he was 'really deep'. At the mention of that she was also rubbing up and down his right arm. She was surprised to find muscle there.

The atmosphere was very awkward now.

And Dipper was suspicious.

After a few more simple questions, such as what exactly was his name - Norman - and what exactly was on his face - jam -, Mabel and Norman left to go hold hands or something like that.

There was definitively something about Norman that was not right, Dipper knew something was off about him. Before he could do anymore investigations, he decided to ask Grunkle Stan what exactly he had said while he was out.

He wasn't exactly sure himself what the heck he was saying, but he did remember it, 'Watch for the normal man, coming from the grave, looking for someone for their own. Many hide within, jam is bad'. He thanked Grunkle Stan before leaving.

 _Jam is bad?_


	4. Gnomes

He honestly had trouble making sense of what he had said. Well he always had trouble of making sense of what he had said. It was never clear to him until it was too late. He wound himself in a situation sometimes worse than what he had started out with. He attempted to push back the memories. _You're on summer break Dipper; you don't need additional pain and hatred on your mind at the moment, just worry about Mabel and her sketchy new boyfriend._

Sketchy was the appropriate term indeed. Just suddenly appearing in the cemetery and willing to date Mabel, _a girl he only just met_? He did have to say something seemed very off about this situation. He skimmed over the book to see if there could be any additional information, anything that could make sense if Norman was even human, which he hardly doubted he was.

He pondered over the words he had spoken earlier, ' _Watch for the normal man, coming from the grave, looking for someone for their own. Many hide within, jam is bad_ '.

All of those were clearly pointing at Norman. He, at first, introduced himself as 'normal man' until Mabel had corrected it to Norman. _Coming from the grave, looking for someone for their own_. It clearly pointed to the fact Mabel had met him at the cemetery, but why where they looking for someone for their own? If he really came from the grave, could he be a zombie? He decided to see if there even was a page on zombies in the journal he had found, to his luck there happened to be one.

"…Known for their pale skins and bad attitudes, these creatures are often mistaken for … teenagers! ...Beware Gravity falls nefarious," he gasped. Lightning flashed as he looked upon the image within the journal. " ** _Zombie!_** " He exclaimed to himself surprised. It all seemed to be adding up now. It made sense; Mabel's boyfriend was a zombie! He was dumbstruck, but it all somehow made sense.

He heard a grunt from outside, hurriedly placed the book down to the side and glued his face against the window. He noticed Norman slowly approaching his sister, he was making grunting sounds characteristic of zombies. Mabel, still unaware of the fact her boyfriend was undead, happily watched him approach her. She spoke something; something he could only guess was 'I like you' from her lip movements. He was slowly approaching her for what only he could guess was to eat her. He called out for Mabel terrified by the prospect of losing his sister. He was praying she would move out of the way. He didn't have enough time to go run down and save her. He felt helpless. _His sister was about to get eaten and he could do nothing, but watch!_

Turns out he only gave her a flower necklace. He felt relief wash over him, but confused. The conclusion he had found didn't seem to be adding up anymore, was she really dating a zombie? How could he be sure he actually was a zombie? All he had was what the journal said and his words from earlier, but how was he sure his words even meant anything? Yeah sometimes it seemed like he had spit out words of what were to come, but how was he sure they were valid? _They were credible? He didn't have any facts or sources, but_ _ **himself and the journal.**_

Oh god was he really thinking zombies actually existed?

He jumped in surprise when Soos spoke to him.

He spoke with him, asking him if he thought Mabel's boyfriend was a zombie, while he did believe him, he just didn't have any proof, any real evidence on tape. He explained that he saw many weird things in Gravity falls too. He thought the mailman was a werewolf, but he emphasized his lack of proof. Without any, he'd seem like a major league kuku clock.

After Soos was called away by Grunkle Stan, Dipper devised a plan to prove that his sister's new boyfriend was in fact a zombie.

He decided his best bet was to follow Mabel and Norman around with his video camera in the hopes that something, _anything_ , could lead to a plausible explanation as to what exactly Norman was. Hopefully, his hypothesis was correct and that he was in fact a zombie. Oh he hoped he was right.

After believing he had collected enough evidence, he had decided to confront Mabel about Norman's true identity. After he jumped, believing Norman had bitten her, but it seemed she had a mishap with the leaf blower. Dipper explained his findings to her, though not cluing in to what exactly he was. Mabel hoped that he was possibly a vampire, Dipper flashed her a page from the journal, believing it to be the zombie page. Turns out it was the gnome page. After finding the appropriate chapter, he flashed her the book again with the same intonation. She didn't seem to like what he was showing her though. She thought that he was joking. It wasn't what she was hoping she would hear, it wasn't what she knew of Norman and for her, unlike Dipper, it wasn't connecting. It didn't make sense. It was like on of his crazy conspiracies all over again. She honestly didn't like his conspiracies. It often ended badly and she didn't want to see him or anyone else hurt because of it. Bad things often happened. She didn't want a repeat.

She attempted to convince him otherwise, to trust her, to believe in her for once, _his own sister,_ not one of his conspiracies. He didn't seem to get it through him though. She was getting frustrated. She decided the only real thing she could do was kick him out. She didn't want her relationship ruined by one of his crazy conspiracies. Not again. _This was a summer for her to have fun_.

Dipper wasn't really sure what exactly he was going to do. He felt his convictions dropping. He wasn't really sure of himself anymore. He was starting to have doubts. Maybe he was crazy? Maybe he was just making it up?

Mabel left for her date with Norman not to long after their spat. Dipper found himself rewatching the videotape again, trying to see if there was anything he missed. He was speaking to himself, slowly and ever surely losing hope about the fact that Norma was actually a zombie, the tape prove otherwise, until he saw Norman's arm falling off. He freaked. He played back that video. He tipped the chair. That's when he started to freak out, calling out for Grunkle Stan and chanting to himself that he was right. That he had been right all along. He wasn't paranoid. _For once he was right about this_.

He called out for Grunkle Stan more at the sudden realization he had to go save Mabel, but Grunkle Stan was occupied by tourists who were continuously unsure about his Grunkle's latest scam. He then noted Wendy and the golf cart. After frantically calling out to her, explaining the situation, she gave him the keys to the golf cart without second thought. As he was about to depart, Soos stopped him, handing him some equipment to fight zombies and smash a piñata. He floored it.

Mabel and Norman found themselves near the forest, a bit of a way from the mystery shack. She was excited; he seemed to have something to tell her. Oh she was hoping he would confess that he was a vampire. Having a vampire boyfriend would be so awesome. She wondered if they really were bedazzled. When the confession came, her dreams were crushed. Gnomes. _Gnomes_. Dipper had been unintentionally right. His words raced through her head.

' _Watch for the normal man, coming from the grave, looking for someone for their own. Many hide within, jam is bad'._ Watch for the normal man, Norman. Coming from the grave, she had found him in the cemetery. Looking for someone for their own, the gnomes were looking for a new queen. Many hide within; they were a bunch of gnomes in a sweat jacket. Jam is bad. _It is evil_. Oh god everything made sense now. Dipper was right. _He was right and she hadn't listened to them_. They were still waiting for her reply.

What if she stalled? What if Dipper was coming for her? What if he still believed that Norman, a bunch of gnomes, _was actually a zombie_. She prayed, oh gosh she prayed. She stammered on her words lightly, attempting to ride out the wave. She heard something in the distance. It sounded like a vehicle. Someone was coming. _Someone was coming_! She would have fought back, she would have, but they were so many and she had no weapons. She started backing away slowly. She explained their relationship couldn't work out, she was a girl and he was a gnome. She hoped they'd still be friends though. They understood. Yeah they completely understood her reasoning. That's why they were going to kidnap her.

She screamed.

" ** _MABEL_**!" She kicked a gnome away. Turning around she noticed Dipper. She never felt happier in her entire life. She was telling the gnomes to get off of her, pushing them off and kicking them away. Suddenly they stopped.

"FEAR THE ONE WHO WEARS THE MARK OF GOLD!" The gnomes ran away not to long after, leaving Mabel behind. They both looked to each other, than to Dipper's pendant. While Mabel's kept hers concealed underneath her sweaters – though this time she had left it at home –, Dipper's kept his in the open.

They jumped into the cart; Mabel thanked him. She would have done the same for him. As they were driving back, Mabel brought up how they seemed to be scared of the pendant he was wearing. How it was 'The mark of gold'. Dipper suggested it possibly had something to do with what the author said: 'In gold we remember, we do not trust.' There seemed to be something conflicting within Dipper. Was it possible…? No no, it could be. He was abruptly brought out of his musing by the smashing of the ground. Why would the ground be smashing…? Looking around, it seemed the gnomes were back, and larger than ever. He floored it.

When arriving at the mystery shack, they noticed they were corned. They tried calling Grunkle Stan for his help, but he didn't seem to be responding to their pleas. It's when Mabel had an idea. It was a crazy idea, but it was an idea. She just needed for Dipper to trust her. She prayed he wouldn't act like how she had acted to him. She had a plan. She had a plan and all she needed was for him to trust her. To her relief, he ended up agreeing to it.

She pretended to accept the marriage proposal. She said that infamous line 'you may now kiss the bride', and she reached for the leaf blower. Sucking him in, she ranted on to him about everything he had done. Every wrongdoing he had done to her _and_ to Dipper. Dipper joined Mabel, very much impressed and pleased by his sister's plans, as well as content with the revenge served well. On the count of three, they blew up the giant gnome transformer, making them run off.

Next time, she'd wear the pendant publicly, she said jokingly. Dipper touched the golden triangle charm, glancing down to it; he wondered exactly what history it held. Exactly who were the Cryptics? _And what did they have to play in all of this?_


	5. Telepathy

That day ended on a nice note, he had to say. In compensation for their gloomy attitudes, Grunkle Stan had allowed them to pick up anything in the Mystery Shack, on the house of course. Dipper really needed something to replace his missing hat, and the one with the pine tree on it seemed to do a good job.

Mabel had been in favour of the grappling hook. While Grunkle Stan had been a bit unsure at first, her extreme joy with the grappling hook gave him the conviction, as well as joy, to agree with her on getting the grappling hook.

Not much happened later, they had been brought to a fishing trip where they had their first encounter with Ivan, the local shut in. He wouldn't stop rambling about the end and how the town was doomed. He babbled on about how there were monsters in the lake.

No one was really sure where Ivan came from or how exactly he had found himself like this, but they tried not to pry into it too much. The last person who did ended up running back in tears; terrified from the stories they had heard. Dipper made a mental note that as a last resort, Ivan was the person to see.

Supposedly there had been a monster in the lake, according to Ivan, but they hadn't really found much, just beavers and chainsaws. They ended up taking some pictures and returned back to Grunkle Stan, defeated, but on the way they did realize that leaving Grunkle Stan was a bad move on their part.

They ended up enjoying the rest of the day fishing while being chased by the boating police, which happened to be Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland. This felt as much illegal as that one time they made fake money.

Another interesting evening they had was when they found Stan's old wax museum and it turned out the statues tried to kill Stan. Just more pleasantly wonderful times, and to none of their surprise, no one really believed them. They went on the hunt for the killer, and were allowed into a bar? _With obviously fake IDs_? … Some things best left untouched.

Finding the murdered wasn't hard when everything started clicking into place.

Time passed and on this day they found themselves enthralled by another episode of 'Tigerfist', when suddenly the commercial break commenced. Soos pointed out that that had been the one he had been talking about, when Grunkle Stan walked in and started going on a rant about how Lil' Gideon had been slandering him since he waltzed right into town. Wouldn't allow them to patronize with the enemy and some other things.

They had found a loophole and decided to go see exactly who this 'monster' was. Mabel was very excited to see this. To Dipper he had a strange sense of déjà vu. It was a bizarre version of the mystery shack; their own Soos included.

 _There can only be one_ , was Soos sole thought.

The show was about to begin. Time to see exactly who Stan's mortal enemy was. Was it some old cruddy man just like Grunkle Stan? _Nega Stan?_ They waited with baited breath to see the man behind the curtain.

To say Dipper's expectations were not met was an understatement. For one, this looked to be just a little kid? Emphasis on the little part and his hair was two times the sizes of his body! He was having some weird anime flashbacks. That was for sure.

Mabel too was shocked, but mostly fawning over how little and adorable he seemed to be.

Gideon started buttering up the audience like a proper entertainer would, praising them for being here tonight while using cheap tactics to demonstrate his supposed psychic powers. Dipper was sure _he_ had more psychic powers than Gideon did. Everyone awed at his cheap tactics.

He seemed to be the only one not bought in by this cheap tactic. Even Mabel had found herself caught in the trap!

Wait, what was he doing now? Was he actually going to sing and dance? Wasn't this supposed to be some sort of tent of telepathy? _What? How did this even have any sort of relation to telepathy?_

He felt his muscles stiffen. Oh no. Maybe it was a good thing he was seated. He poked Mabel, attempting to draw her attention before anything really happened. Oh all times, _and in a public space?_ Luck really hated him today. He blacked out.

" _The one who lies in shadow reaches closer_ ," was that Dipper's voice? Oh no. Mabel turned her head to look at her brother. Gideon absorbed everyone in; they couldn't hear Dipper over the song. Soos seemed to be the only other person to notice and they took it within their responsibility that Dipper did no harm himself what's so ever, such as falling onto the bench and hurting his head or things alike. " Bearing the mark of legend," while Soos was confused as to what Dipper was blabbering on about, Mabel made sure to memorize what he was saying. If it was anything like the gnomes, something here had set him off. "Young of age yet thirsts for power beyond control, fear the one of pure white, hidden within lies. He doesn't like garlic." Why was it always weird one liners at the end? She had taken a notice to these little things. Last time it was, 'jam is bad.' now it's 'he doesn't like garlic.' All in all, it also sometimes ended up being a deal breaker line.

Some of the other audience members actually had taken awareness of Dipper's seizure, and decided the best thing to do was inform officer Blubs who had been within the audience tonight. When it reached wind of Sheriff Blubs, he took control of the situation, stopping the show in its entirety and directing the Pines family out of the tent.

When Dipper came to, he ended up being seated on the hood of the police car while Mabel and he were asked some questions, like why he didn't seem to have a service dog.

They explained that when he had been younger, Dipper did have one, but something had happened and now he no longer had one. It seemed to be a long and complicated story that was only dismissed with muttered comments.

In the mean time Soos had been sent off to find Stan. While he would be upset they had disobeyed his orders, he would be glad to know that his niblings were a-okay. When he had arrived, though out of sweat, Gideon had appeared holding what seemed to be some money.

"I'm sorry t' hear about what happen to y'all during my show," he started off, "I decided that it would be best for me to refund all of your tickets and that if you ever need anything from us, it's on the house". Stan liked this. He took the money and stacked it in his pockets.

Stan lifted Dipper off the top of the hood while Sheriff Blubs told them to take care. Mabel thanked him as well as Gideon. She soon ran after Grunkle Stan as he cried out "takeout for everyone!"

Gideon watched the Pines family run off, he had a look that said a new, and quite interesting, development had occurred. Yes quite interesting indeed.


	6. Smile

"- _Hidden within lies. He doesn't like garlic_." Mabel said contently. They were in the diner; they had decided to do breakfast for supper. They split a large pile of pancakes before all four of them. The refund was nice and all, but you know, you won't make much of a profit if you spend it all after getting it back.

"What exactly could that mean?" Dipper pondered to himself.

"Maybe you feel asleep watching some monster movie, offered Stan, "anyway I wouldn't put much thought into nonsense. Bad things happen to people who run after fairy tales." _Yeah, nonsense_ , thought Dipper. Both Mabel and Dipper looked to each other. They would have some researching to do.

While they enjoyed their supper chatting about funny stories that had happened to them, the twins couldn't help, but feel as if they were being watched. It gave this happy atmosphere a vibe of discomfort. The sensation persisted until they had confined themselves to their room inside the Mystery Shack.

With all the lights off, Mabel and Dipper decided it was high time to look into what exactly they could be dealing with. The clues that could help key down what exactly they were dealing with. Retelling each other a few times those 'prophetic' lines, they were able to pinpoint it down to a few things.

They could deduce that:

· What ever it was, it didn't like garlic.

· It was possibly a humanoid being. Possibly.

· It was a legend.

· It lies within the shadows.

It was possible that the reference to shadows was that it didn't like sunlight? That was a possibility. He was trying to rattle his head for things that didn't like sunlight and garlic. It was on the tip of his tongue. He knew what it was, he just couldn't pin point down to _what_ it was.

"What do you think Grunkle Stan meant that 'Bad things happen to people who run after fairy tales'?" Mabel spoke up suddenly. Dipper looked to her confused. She had sat herself on the ground next to Dipper who had laid himself out to better facilitate the search. She looked nervous, pondering millions things going about just as fast through out her head.

"Probably nothing, I mean we aren't chasing after fairy tales."

"Yeah, I know," she retorted as if she heard this a thousand times before, "But what if he's right. What if we get ourselves hurt? What if we put ourselves in danger?" she sounded really worried.

"Mabel. We won't get hurt, we have each other, and I mean the two of us are pretty tough right? Brain and brawn, as long as we've got each other's backs, we'll be fine!"

She didn't seemed really convinced by him, but she muttered an 'if you say so'. He was going to pursue this no matter what. She knew it. It was better that she was there to help him if he put his foot in his mouth. Dipper was surprisingly high maintenance. She decided to read one of the books she had brought with her during the summer break. It was called 'Daybreak'. It was one of the hot sellers at the moment and there were four books in the series. It was about vampires and werewolves. She loved these books, while Dipper always called them mediocre attempts of an 'I have no idea how relationships actually work' author.

When she was well into her book, Dipper decided to ask her input on what exactly this thing could be, but he didn't get time to finish his sentence when he screamed in delight, waking up Stan on the floor below them, but not being worried enough to get out of bed and go see what the problem exactly was. Dipper was passing back and forth frantically as he looked to the romance novel Mabel was loosely cling on to.

"Bro bro, you okay there?" she asked with a confused tone. She wasn't exactly sure _what_ he was doing, but she knew he had an epiphany of some sort.

"-Mean that would make sense, but how would that have even happened at that time when-" his mutters were starting to become even more incoherent as he tried linking things together, attempting to grasp at pieces of the puzzle that had still not appeared.

"Bro?" Nothing.

"Dip?" nuh uh.

"Dipper!"

"IT'S A VAMPIRE!"

Mabel ended up squealing so much she feel over in delight. She got up quickly saying it was okay and dusting herself off.

Her dreams were finally coming true. She would have a hot vampire boyfriend who would watch her every move and do his best by doing nothing to protect her. She was finally going to be the protagonist of her book: Pretty.

She couldn't wait!

When the next day came, it was to her surprise Lil' Gideon was at their doorstep. He explained the reason for his visit was to check up to see if everything was okay, and to get a better conversation with her. You see, she had really caught Gideon's eye, and he thought that she was someone quite interesting. Her laugh was especially pretty.

She felt flattered, she really did.

He invited her to play dress-up with him and she couldn't feel more honoured.

With more fleeting activities, she felt herself grow tense around him. For one, he had this really creepy obsession/crush on her that made her feel all icky on the inside. She noticed these weird tendencies he had. Like how he put on a lot of sunscreen when he went outside. Like an abnormally large amount of sunscreen, and another thing; _he didn't like garlic bread._

 ** _The betrayal._**

It wasn't until the boat ride, that she finally had enough courage, brought upon by Dipper, to tell him no. She didn't want to date him. _What's so ever_. She made her feel gross and uncomfortable.

When the fireworks came on, she felt her resolve crashing. Just splendid… Ha. Ha, ha. He was asking her out on a dinner date. She couldn't refuse. Heck she couldn't swim away since she had no idea how to get back to land!

What she honestly thought was weird though, she honestly had to admit, had been when he said _Dipper could chaperon_. On all the other events there had been no chaperon, so why now?

 _And why exactly Dipper?_ Did he look like chaperon material? No he was a walking mess. Her brother, but still a mess, she couldn't deny it. Even he couldn't deny it. Was there another reason?

No, probably not. He probably wanted to get on good terms with the rest of the family, Dipper was next, and finally it would be Soos. Soos would be one of the easier people to impress. Best to get through Dipper first. She felt herself grow more and more melancholic just thinking about the stupid date! She didn't want to go! Something felt really wrong about that kid. She wanted out, a.s.a.p.

That's when Dipper, with that big ol' brain of his, game up with a great idea. He would go alone. Tell Gideon, flat out; she didn't like him that way. At all, and would prefer to remain friends. She was going to hug him to death. That was her Dipping sauce! She couldn't thank him enough. She owed him big time!

"I'm so glad you could join me tonight, Dipper! By the way, where is Mabel? Joinin' us soon I presume?" Gideon sat across from him in the both. They were seated in a fancy restaurant. People were staring at them; hush whispers were spreading like wildfire already. They weren't even being discrete. The nerve.

He looked back to Gideon; he had his plan set out. He knew what to do. He had to do it. His sister's relationship status was at stake here. He knew how much she enjoyed calling herself a single pringle. Come on Dipper you can do this!

He coughed into his balled hand to clear his throat.

"That's the thing Gideon. Mabel isn't going to be here." A sour face was what greeted Dipper. Oh no.

"I beg your pardon?"

Okay, Dipper, you got this.

"She doesn't like you."

"...Could you repeat that please?" Seeing as Gideon still didn't seem to get the message, he pulled out the megaphone Mabel had packed for him. He honestly never thought he would need it, but you know. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"She doesn't like you and doesn't want to date you. At all."

The entire restaurant could hear it even more now than they had before.

A silence cradled itself within the fine establishment.

"Oh well, that's okay!"

What.

Dipper was clearly confused when those words reached thin air.

"I mean. You're still here!"

"... What?"

This wasn't making sense. He was sure he would be upset. Absolutely outraged by his sister's rejection. He definitively wasn't expecting him to be completely okay with these arrangements. He seemed rather pleased with everything. It made himself weird. Was this how Mabel felt? Yuck, honestly he could understand completely now she felt so revolted.

"One twin is all I need..."

"Um, I beg your pardon…?"

Gideon was reaching over the table. What was he doing? He smiled, bearing a grin of fangs. He tensed. What were the odds of all of this? Was it his lucky stars? Or was it just the luck of the draw?

Gideon was the vampire.


	7. Vampire

She felt nervousness build up in her. It wasn't the right thing to do. She shouldn't have sent Dipper to do something that she should have done. It just wasn't right. Even if Gideon was kind of a weird little kid, he still deserved some form of respect?

She sat herself on the porch to clear out her thoughts, subconsciously munching on her hair out of habit. She didn't pay much attention to when the bell atop of the door rang, nor when she heard the grinding of the wood near her, meaning someone was approaching. It was Wendy who had come out to sit beside her, asking her how her hair tasted.

She really had nothing to loose at the moment. Wendy honestly seemed like a good person to ask, hoping she did have experience in this department of affairs.

"Wendy, I need some advice, have you ever broken up with someone before?" she was real desperate. Anything that could help lift her morals and give her incite on what to do.

"Oh yeah, loads," she said as if it was a day to day thing, and went on to methodically enumerate every single person she had broken up with, "Rust Duran, Eli Hall, Stony Davidson," she posed, trying to remember who else she had broken the heart off. Mabel took this opportunity to speak, saying she wasn't exactly sure what was wrong, she still felt really gross all over. Maybe it was because she didn't handle it herself. She had sent Dipper out to do her dirty work. She knew what to do.

Wendy continued to enumerate.

"Mike Warley, Nate Holt, That guy with the tattoos, Danny Fellman," Mabel put into words her concerns, but Wendy was still too busy ticking off the list of exes, "Catherine O'Donnell, but she ended up moving away… Mark Epstein-" She had a sudden realization. She had forgotten to break up with Mark. It explained why he kept on calling her.

She hadn't even noticed Mabel had left when she had gotten a text from Mark. She ignored his number. She sighed. She really missed Catherine. Placing her hands into her coat pockets, she felt a crumpled up piece of paper. Her eyebrows creased in confusion. When had she even cleaned out this old coat? If she remembered correctly, when Catherine left 2 years ago. Yikes.

She pulled it out to examine its contents.

Oh my…

Mabel biked as quickly as she could down the dirt road. By her luck, they were possibly still at the restaurant eating. Hopefully. When arriving in front of the restaurant, she noticed dragging marks and horse marks. She hastily jumped off her bike and into the restaurant. They weren't there. Did Gideon take it badly? Oh gosh what if Dipper was in trouble and it was all her fault? No, Mabel everything was okay, Dipper can handle himself around a little kid like Gideon.

Oh man who was she kidding.

"DIPPER!"

She jumped back onto her bike and followed the horse hoofs up the trail. The area was familiar to her, this was the place Gideon had taken her the second time they hung out. His family's factory would be where she could find them. Possibly.

She ditched her bike by the road as she flew straight to the grand window that illuminated the inside. She gasped. Without a second thought she slammed through the door.

Being kidnapped by a vampire was definitively not on Dipper's plans for this evening. Especially finding out who exactly the vampire was. What really preoccupied his mind, he had to say, _was how he was going to get out of this mess?_

To say he was clueless was in understatement. He was panicked. He did not - under any circumstances - want to become a vampire. Like no, he had so many better things to do with his life than being some cheap gimmick and end up having to deal with Gideon for the rest of his immortal life. He had so much more self-respect than that.

He was tied to a chair, watching Gideon pace back and forth, making mental notes to himself, not really caring if Dipper was even there or not. From what he could understand in between yelling to let go of him, Gideon seemed preoccupied by discussing his plans. What he could understand, it had to do with power.

You know he could have just as easily guessed that from how much he knew about him. What a big shocker.

He felt his personal space invaded, and shying away when Gideon came up close and personal.

"You, what exactly is your connection with him?" He was sneering at him. Why was he sneering, who was he talking about. He looked down, a glint catching his eye. He tossed his vest aside lightly to catch a glint to his golden pendant. Gideon stumbled back a few feet, his eyes still staring deeply at the pendant.

"…Well, oh my, oh my… What a… Conundrum? Charming, quite lucky indeed." …What was going on? Did Gideon know something about the pendant? What exactly was going on? "I guess I really do only need one twin after all… but with both I could conquer all!"

"Seriously, what is going on?"

"Silence!" He aggressively approached Dipper before realizing his mistake and sweetening out his appearance, gently rubbing off invisible dust that was on his shoulders. Dipper gave Gideon a perplexed and deprecating look. To put it simply. _What the fuck, man._

"Now you stay still, this won't hurt a bit…" Oh god this was it. He was going to become one of those really stupid glittering vampires that Mabel fawned over so much. Oh god now he knew how the protagonists of novels like those would actually feel. Panicked, scared, and a little bit disgusted not going to lie here. He closed his eyes, praying for the worse, but the sensation never came. Instead, a mighty war cry invaded the vicinity of what he could deduce was a factory.

" ** _EVIL VAMPIRE DO NOT TOUCH MY BROTHER_** " She kicked him. She flying kicked him right in the face. Holy shit, _she actually flying kicked him right in the face._

Honestly, Dipper was amazed. Mabel was able to gain enough momentum to literally send Gideon flying. Incredible. He looked to Mabel in awn. Also a bit terrified, but that she will never know.

Too distracted by her incredible exploit, she posed looking towards the direction she had sent Gideon flying.

"Serves you right for attacking my brother! What the heck man?" Mabel: the voice of reason.

"Mabel, a little help?" Dipper peeped up from a bit away. She turned around surprised; she had forgotten where exactly Dipper had been. She was so caught up in the moment. She just got this rush of adrenaline and you know, stuff happened.

"Oh right," she laughed nervously to herself, before going to untie her brother. Without second thought they quickly fled the factory, not even taking a second glance back when they both hopped onto Mabel's bike as their get away mobile. They were scared that if they looked back, Gideon would be behind them.

Arriving home, they grabbed garlic and tied it to make shift crosses. If they were right, it should keep vampires like Gideon at bay. They hung some up here and there within their room. On top of Mabel's bed, she noticed her book "Daybreak". Without much further thought she picked it up and threw it out the window. She panted angrily.

"I hate vampires." Dipper could second the motion. With the run in they had, vampires were definitively a pain in the neck, literally!

There was still one thing that bothered Dipper with this encounter. What did Gideon know about the pendant?

* * *

A/N: if y'all are interested in this story and would like to contribute, you can follow us at cult-au . tumblr . com


	8. Ethel

The next day Dipper awoke to a room flooded with crosses. For him this was quite weird to see. Where had the crosses come from? Were these sentient crosses that had hunted him down to kill him? If so could he save himself from the horror that was sentient crosses?

All his theories were destroyed when Mabel walked through the door carrying a pile of crosses. Well there goes that self-induced panic and he hadn't even been awake for more than a minute. A new record!

"Mabel, where did you get all of these crosses?" He moved himself around the very pointy objects with precaution.

"I got them from the church in town!" She dropped the pile onto the floor and headed to pull something out from underneath her bed. Okay, but how did she even get this many crosses? Did she buy them? How did she even get the money for them?

"Mabel we aren't Christian." Mabel raised herself off of the floor, giving him a confused look. For him it read 'did you really forget already?'

"Did you already forgot about your rendezvous with Gideon?" Oh yeah that. He shivered. He really wanted to forget that.

"Point taken, steal all the crosses you need."

Mabel looked offended.

"I didn't steal them, I _borrowed_ them!"

"That's just a prettier way of— " before Dipper could have a chance to retort, Grunkle Stan called the down. It turned out he had a call to take and someone to meet, so he needed someone to watch the shack and clean it up while he was out. Without further being said, he quickly strode out the front door.

While Soos said something, and the rest of the co laughed, Dipper couldn't help, but mindlessly finger at his pendant. What exactly did Gideon know about it? What exactly was it tied to? What exactly did his family get themselves tied up in? _How long? **Was there something their parents weren't telling them?**_ ****

He shook those thoughts away, quite literally.

"Hey… you okay there Dipping sauce?" Mabel wandered over, placing a hand on his shoulder. Dipper lifted himself up immediately.

"Oh me? Perfectly fine! Couldn't be better!" He dismissed.

"Hey guys, over here!" Wendy called over.

She frantically hurried back to the side of the house. Stan had just left. He was talking on this large, old cell phone quite rapidly. She couldn't catch much of what he was saying apart from "be there soon". It reminded her of the fact that she hadn't actually talked to him for a bit. Well it wasn't like he needed any more information; anyway she couldn't even supply more if she wanted to.

She found herself crouched underneath the window of the shack, from inside she could hear the voices of the new kids, Stan's adopted son and that lumberjack gal. The lumberjack seemed to be calling upon the new kids up onto the roof it seemed. Would she be able to talk to them today? No? She, for sure, was not going to let this trip go to waste.

She came up to the front door, she knocked once, she knocked twice, she knocked a third time and yet no one seemed to come. She sat herself on the couch that was peculiarly placed on the front porch. There wasn't much she could do now, but wait.

She didn't have to wait long, because the door slammed open and the occupants of the shack, minus Soos, ran out to go see the people she had not notice arriving. She jumped in fright when the door had slammed open. She thought she had seen her life flash right before her eyes. Her spirit companion snickered. She only glared to them.

Just as her luck seemed to get worse, before she could even have a word, they ran off into the parked car, blabbering on about this haunted convenience store they would be heading off too.

Pacifica took a sharp intake of breath and angrily sighed.

"Today just isn't my day, is it?"

"Sure isn't sir."

She picked up her helmet where she had left it on the ground, right next to her snap on roller blades, and decided to follow in pursuit of the car. It's not like it was difficult, everyone in Gravity falls knew where the Dusk 2 Dawn was located. It wasn't an unknown secret, but people knew better than to wander in.

When arriving, quite late she might add because rollerblading is far, far more time consuming than driving one's car, everything had already gone to hell in the convenience store. She looked to Ethel.

"We're really doing this?" Ethel gave her a look incredulousness. She honestly did not have time for this now, " you're just going to waltz right in and reap those two ghosts, now? When we could have done this so much earlier _if it wasn't for your procrastination_."

"I was just going to ask you to talk to the ghosts, but if you insist, I'll gladly do this." Pacifica smirked. Man oh man; Ethel really was terrible at reading her. At least she had something she was good at, for once.

Ethel vanished. She hurried to the window of the store, peeking in to see what exactly was occurring. She could see Ethel conversing with the ghosts, but they seemed to be considering a deal with one of the new kids, the one who she had seen wearing a hat earlier, now wearing a lamb costume. Okay. She wasn't really going to question much about that, but okay. It seemed the husband possessed the other kid; okay she really was going to have to reap them one of these days.

A few minutes passed before Ethel returned. They seemed a bit worse for wear. They didn't have much to do here anymore. They would come back another day to lay them to rest, once Ethel had rested up a bit and Pacifica had settled some loose ends. She skated off, but she almost tripped when someone had called out to her. She turned her head back for a second, and caught eyes with the kid in the blue cap.

Pacifica vanished before he could say another word.

"Kid, who you calling out to?" someone yelled out to him. He turned back to him; spoke a few words, before giving one glance back down to her direction and running back to the car.

So it really was them. It was verified. The ones' bearing the mark of gold have returned. She gripped her own pendant tightly.

What exactly was Bill playing at?


End file.
